Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

ARM: Softbank

Lord Myners: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they consulted experts in the field before publicly welcoming the acquisition of ARM Holdings by SoftBank, and whether they would similarly welcome a rival bid from an international private equity investor.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: SoftBank has made it clear that it intends to invest in ARM, keep its HQ in the UK, and at least double the employee headcount in the UK. The Government welcomes this. No rival bids for ARM have so far been made.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Turkey: Politics and Government

Lord Patten: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anelay of St Johns on 30 June (HL759), in which areas of reform in Turkey they believe there has been "significant backsliding".

Baroness Anelay of St Johns: The Government has stressed to the Government of Turkey the importance of freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and the independence of the judiciary. In meetings with the Turkish Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and others during a recent visit to Turkey the Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Rutland and Melton (Sir Alan Duncan) emphasised the UK's unequivocal condemnation of the coup attempt and our support for Turkey's democratic institutions. The Minister of State also emphasised the need for Turkey to respect human rights and the rule of law and urged continued focus on the Daesh threat, emphasising the need to protect British tourists.

South Sudan: Peace Negotiations

Lord Alton of Liverpool: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the preliminary ceasefire agreed in South Sudan on 11 July continues to hold; what steps they are taking to ensure that those displaced by the violence in South Sudan receive humanitarian protection and that the existing infrastructure in place at the Tomping base of the UN Mission in South Sudan is adequate; and what representations they have made to both the first Vice President Riek Machar and President Salva Kiir to encourage constructive political dialogue.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns: The former Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Hon. Friend the Member for Rochford and Southend East (James Duddridge), issued a statement on 14 July calling on President Kiir and First Vice-President Machar to ensure their troops abide by the ceasefire and refrain from further violence. We are now working with our regional partners to support this. At the UN Security Council we continue to make clear that the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) needs to be strengthened and an arms embargo and targeted sanctions should be applied.The UK’s humanitarian partners are providing water, food and health services to those affected by the recent fighting in Juba. Our humanitarian programme continues to deliver assistance across South Sudan to support the 1.6 million internally displaced people. We are also working to ensure that UNMISS has the equipment and unrestricted access it needs to fulfil its mandated task of providing a secure environment for the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

Rwanda: Civil Liberties

Baroness Tonge: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they are supporting the government of Rwanda in its work to provide civil and political rights for its citizens.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns: Rwanda has made impressive gains in securing economic and social rights; we want to see these continue. We support the Government of Rwanda’s Vision 2020 development programme which sets out their commitment to “the rule of law and the protection of human rights”.We speak candidly with Rwanda, publicly and privately, and have been clear that Rwanda needs to do more to make these aspirations a reality. For example, we submitted recommendations on media freedoms and political space during the Universal Periodic Review on Rwanda. The Department for International Development’s work in Rwanda is underpinned by an agreement on four Partnership Principles, which include respect for human rights and promoting good governance. Our regular private discussions with the Government of Rwanda are reinforced at Ministerial level, including during visits to Kigali by the former Minister of State at the Department for International Development, my Rt Hon Friend the Member for Welwyn Hatfied (Grant Shapps), in September and the former Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Hon. Friend the Member for Rochford and Southend East (James Duddridge) in December last year.We are also delivering training in partnership with the Rwandan National Police on a range of topics from public order management to gender based violence. This training supports the security forces to carry out their role of protecting the population in a human rights compliant manner.

Department for Work and Pensions

Pensions

Lord Myners: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have made an estimate of the cost of their monetary policy on the solvency of pension schemes, and whether they plan to use the profit made from quantitative easing to strengthen the financial position of the Pension Protection Fund.

Lord Freud: An error has been identified in the written answer given on 25 July 2016.The correct answer should have been:

The UK’s monetary policy framework gives operational responsibility for monetary policy to the independent Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) at the Bank of England. Decisions on setting monetary policy are for the judgement of the Monetary Policy Committee. The Government is sensitive to the fact that there will be those who gain and those who lose from any particular monetary policy decision. Such distributional effects typically balance out over the course of a policy cycle. Over the last six years low interest rates have helped households and businesses through challenging economic times. Furthermore, as the Bank of England has explained in its article entitled "The distributional effects of asset purchases" published in its 2012 Q3 Quarterly Bulletin: "Without the Bank's asset purchases, most people in the United Kingdom would have been worse off. Economic growth would have been lower. Unemployment would have been higher. Many more companies would have gone out of business. This would have had a significant detrimental impact on savers and pensioners along with every other group in our society." The Pension Protection Fund is financially sustainable and there are no plans to further strengthen it. The PPF 2015/16 annual report said that the Fund has over £22 £23 billion assets under management and is 115 116.3 per cent funded.

Lord Freud: The UK’s monetary policy framework gives operational responsibility for monetary policy to the independent Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) at the Bank of England. Decisions on setting monetary policy are for the judgement of the Monetary Policy Committee. The Government is sensitive to the fact that there will be those who gain and those who lose from any particular monetary policy decision. Such distributional effects typically balance out over the course of a policy cycle. Over the last six years low interest rates have helped households and businesses through challenging economic times. Furthermore, as the Bank of England has explained in its article entitled "The distributional effects of asset purchases" published in its 2012 Q3 Quarterly Bulletin: "Without the Bank's asset purchases, most people in the United Kingdom would have been worse off. Economic growth would have been lower. Unemployment would have been higher. Many more companies would have gone out of business. This would have had a significant detrimental impact on savers and pensioners along with every other group in our society." The Pension Protection Fund is financially sustainable and there are no plans to further strengthen it. The PPF 2015/16 annual report said that the Fund has over £22 £23 billion assets under management and is 115 116.3 per cent funded.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Common Land

Lord Greaves: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what actions they are proposing for reclaiming lost commons under the Commons Act 2006.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble: Applications can already be made to register commons which were mistakenly omitted from the register in nine authority areas under the Commons Act Schedule 2 paragraphs 2-4. Together these nine authorities cover over 70% of registered commons and greens in England. In addition, where commons were omitted as a result of a mistake made by a commons registration authority, applications under section 19 of the Commons Act 2006 can be made anywhere in England.

Foot and Mouth Disease: Vaccination

Lord Greaves: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress is being made in developing better vaccines for foot and mouth disease.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble: There are three vaccines authorised for use in the UK for foot and mouth disease (FMD). The UK Marketing Authorisation Holder (Merial Animal Health Ltd) is a leading developer of FMD vaccines and a major supplier worldwide. The decision on whether to develop and market a new product is a commercial one for those pharmaceutical companies wishing to invest the necessary capital. Applications for new products are assessed by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate to ensure their safety, quality and efficacy prior to them being authorised.

River Helford: Fish Farming

Lord Myners: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to protect and promote oyster farming on the banks of the Helford River in Cornwall.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble: The shellfish industry is an important contributor to the UK economy and is worth over £250 million annually. Government policy is to facilitate industry-led growth in this sector; it is for private enterprise and the owners of sites to consider the benefits of oyster farming on the banks of the Helford River in Cornwall. Public funds are currently available to support economic growth in the aquaculture sector through the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF). In November 2015, the UK Government published a Multiannual National Plan for Aquaculture which outlines areas of growth earmarked for support under the EMFF. In addition, the Shellfish Act 1967 exists to encourage the setting up and management of private and natural fisheries through Several and Regulating Orders, which grant exclusive fishing or management rights within a designated area.

Agriculture: Subsidies

Lord Palmer: To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the reply by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 20 July (HL Deb, col 640), whether the UK is going to be fined by the EU as a result of making late payments under the Single Farm Payment Scheme.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble: Under normal rules, if the value of payments made after the 30 June deadline exceeds 5% of the value of payments made before the deadline, then penalties apply. The reductions would be 10% on payments made in July, 25% on payments made in August and 45% for payments made in September. Commissioner Hogan, however, confirmed his intention to extend the date by which Member States may make CAP direct payments without the usual reductions in the rate of reimbursement from the EU to the Member States concerned. We are currently assessing the UK position in terms of the value of payments made by 30 June and the expected value of payments to be made before 15 October for each of the four UK paying agencies. Once this assessment has been completed we will be in a position to decide whether the UK needs to submit a request to take up the provisions outlined by the Commission.

Department for Communities and Local Government

Community Land Trusts

Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have received representations regarding a specific case in which parish councillors who are also members of a Community Land Trust (CLT) have been told to declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest even though the CLT is legally established as a not-for-profit Industrial and Provident Society that requires members to take out £5 par value (not investment) shares and allows no income for members or directors from its activities.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth: We are not aware of having received representations on such a case. The national rules on local authority members’ pecuniary interests, as set out in the Localism Act 2011, require local authority members, including parish councillors, to register and disclose certain pecuniary interests, as defined in the Relevant Authorities (Disclosable Pecuniary Interests) Regulations 2012. A guide for councillors on openness and transparency on personal interests is available on my department’s web-site. Local authority members who contact my department for advice are directed to the regulations and to the guide and are advised to contact the monitoring officer of their relevant local authority, who can advise them on their specific queries.

EU Grants and Loans

Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to discuss European structural and investment funding with the Local Government Association and other interested parties.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth: The Government meets regularly with representatives of the Local Government Association and other partners, who are members of national and local European Structural and Investment Funds committees where these EU funds are discussed.

HM Treasury

EU Grants and Loans

Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what guarantees are in place to ensure that European structural and investment funding commitments that have already been entered into are honoured.

Lord O'Neill of Gatley: The Government remains committed to encouraging economic growth across the regions and nations of the UK. The Government is carefully considering the use of these funds and will make an announcement on EU funding in due course.

EU Grants and Loans

Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether it is their intention to allocate sufficient funding to meet the level and profile of the current calls by the UK on European structural and investment funding.

Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are planning to commit to future funding that reflects the total level of the 2014–20 European structural and investment funding programme in line with the needs of local areas.

Lord O'Neill of Gatley: The people of the UK have voted to leave the EU. It would not be appropriate to commit, without due consideration, to continuing to spend money over a long period as if we had not voted to leave the EU. But the Government remains committed to encouraging economic growth across the regions and nations of the UK. The Government is therefore carefully considering the use of these funds and will make an announcement on EU funding in due course.

Department for International Trade

British Chambers of Commerce

Viscount Waverley: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what annual funding they have provided to the British Chambers of Commerce for each of the past four years; whether any payment has been made to that organisation beyond any annual budgetary allocation during each of the past four years; and if so, what was the amount of each such payment, and for what purpose each was made.

Lord Price: During the two-year pilot of the Overseas Business Network initiative (OBNi) (2013/14 and 2014/15), the former UK Trade & Investment trialled a number of initiatives with the BCC for which they were granted £1.6m. This included accrediting the overseas service providers, mainly chambers of commerce, and co-ordinating UK-end activity.In 2015/16, BCC were contracted to continue to accredit overseas delivery partners and deliver one global conference, for which they received a total of £334,225 (incl. of VAT). They will continue to accredit overseas chambers in the network in 2016/17, under contract up to a maximum value of £157,680 (plus VAT). BCC were also subcontracted by UKTI’s main contractor for its Inward Investment Programme between 2012 and 2014 for a total value of £2,552,704. The former Department for Business, Innovation and Skills made a number of relatively small payments to the BCC in each of the past four years, for things such as an exhibition stand at the BCC Annual Conferences and a small number of regional events. These payments total around £22,000 across the four years.